A long drawn legal battle to remove a 40 year old mosque on the Valluvar Kottam High Road at Nungambakkam came to end with the apex Court recently has dismissed the appeal filed by Nungambakkam Muslim Welfare Association (NMWA).
The Madras High Court had passed an order saying that the land on which the mosque had been built belonged to the Agastheewarar Prasanna Venkatesa Perumal Devasthanam. While hearing a second appeal filed by the NMWA in 1998, Justice G Jayachandran on 5th January 2017 directed the mosque to be demolished along with other superstructures and hand over the vacant land to the devasthanam. NMWA claimed that it was a bona fide purchaser of the land from VG Ramalingam (1652 Sq.ft) Radhammal (3827 Sq.ft(and VK Thangamathavan (3872 sq.ft) in the year 1981. They are all former tenants of the devasthanam. The court ruled that the purchase would get nullified as Ramalingam had obtained a sale deed in his favour through fraudulent means.
The Judge concurred with the counsel for Devasthanam A K Sriram that Ramalingam cleverly invoked the Madras City Tenants Protection Act 1921 and a got a fraudulent sale deed executed in his favour in 1980 without notice to the Devasthanam and sold it to NMWA in 1981 for a sale consideration. The Judge said “since the former tenant Ramalingam himself had any right over the property in dispute, the subsequent sale was done at his instance would naturally have no legal sanction. NMWA would not be entitled to any compensation for the demolition of the mosque because the devasthanam had filed a suit before the City Civil Court (CCC) as early as in 1982 and the mosque was built at the risk of being demolished any time. It is to be noted that the Original Suit (OS) was passed in favour of the Devasthanam in 1991. NMWA filed an appeal suit in 1993 was dismissed in 2006. It again filed a second appeal in Madras High Court in 1998 and a special leave petition in apex court in 2017. After five years, a SC bench comprising justices S Abdul Nazeer and JH K Maheswari dismissed the same in last July 28th.
Now armed with the SC order, the Devasthanam may file an execution petition before the CCC for the enforcement of its 1991 decree. Hindu outfits fear the possibilities of NMWA going for a negotiation with the Devasthanam to sell the same to them on payment of due consideration. The DMK government’s HR and CE department will without any hesitation readily accept the proposal and give away the same for a paltry amount or even for free. HR and CE had earlier given away a parcel of the land free of cost belonging to Vadapalani Murugan temple to an illegal mosque for common passage despite protest from Hindu Munnani. In Queensland issue also, HR and CE ‘s role is questionable and it is believed to be aligned with a Christian family that runs a multi crore amusement park on a recovered land given on lease and rent arrears. HR and CE are notorious for many such dealings.
Hindu outfits have warned that any compromise by Hindu Religious (HR) and Charitable Endowments (CE) Department and the NMWA to sell the temple land on which a mosque illegally stands, will be opposed tooth and nail.
Leaders of Hindu outfits say “we will oppose such proposal by the NMWA and move to court if needed. No Hindu temple land can be sold to Muslims or Christians or allowed to be encroached by them. It will be against the will of the donor of the land to the temple and against the court order. The illegal mosque should be demolished forthwith in tune with the court order”.
